"When it comes to prostate cancer, there's more than meets the eye," National Prostate Cancer Coalition CEO Richard N. Atkins, M.D. said... "Being a Tractor Truck, Optimus should have known the importance of check-ups- oil, anti-freeze, spark plugs- the works," said Atkins. "It comes as such a surprise- my kids loved that guy."

The Kraine Theatre (85 East 4th Street): Most comic book artists spend their time hidden behind notebooks, scribbling away frustrations and fantasies. But tonight's one-year anniversary of the How to Kick People series lures them out of their diner booths and up on stage. David Rees, author of the Get Your War On books, presents projections of his influential works along with Karen Sneider, creator of The Many Strange Desires of Mreh; Daily Show writer Eric Drysdale, a recent contributor to Bizarro World; and legendary indie-comic creator Evan Dorkin (Milk & Cheese and Space Ghost Coast to Coast). Hosts Todd Levin and Bob Powers also promise six randomly selected audience members cartoon portraits of themselves.

6-page preview of Marvel Adventures: The Thing #1 [Mile High Comics] [Marvel.com says it's out 9 March, Mile High says 2 March; a lot of the press says "Marvel Adventures: The Thing" but Marvel.com, the cover and copyright notice clearly say "Tales Of The Thing"; such confusion!] [thanks Sanctum!]

Looks like a kiddie version of Dr. Strange and a kiddie version of Marvel Two-In-One #6 (November 01974), whose writer Steve Gerber gets a plot credit here.

Strange #4 out this week; Sleeper: Season Two #9, Invincible #20, The Losers #21; Runners #5 is listed! but don't know if the shop will have it; will probably check out the hubbub re: Dan Slott's Spider-Man/Human Torch, and JLA Classified #4 with Giffen et al- big haul for Neilalien [Diamond Shipping List]

Brian Hibbs analyzes the Bookscan 02004 bookstore graphic-novel market numbers [Tilting At Windmills]
Manga storms on with 1.3 million more books year-to-year and 70% of the market- and it came out of DC and Marvel's hides; big drops there. Movies don't help sales. Manga formatting for non- or pseudo-manga doesn't help. Manga not selling like front-loaded periodicals so much as Hibbs once suspected; a good number are sticking around as perennials. But graphic-novel growth was bigger in Diamond's direct market than the bookstores. Lots of soupy numbers and all kinds of apples and oranges, but clearly the combination of bookstores not rescuing the Big Two, and only 9 more Diamond Direct Market accounts from last year, can't be good.

Hey, Robot Wisdom is back!
If it had been gone any longer, people might have started saying, "RW blogged in a Neilalien-like format" instead of the other way round... ;)

In other veteran weblogging news, Kottke quits his day job to go "blog pro"
Is this an artist seeking out patronage, or an addict rationalizing that he can panhandle full time? ;) Good luck, Jason! Most people cut back when something gets unhealthily "out of hand"- only the crazy geniuses realize its their true calling.

This character, John Constantine, appeared to know quite a bit about the inner workings of the hidden world of magic -- although he never appeared to use any himself. Unlike Dr. Strange, he didn't toss around "bolts of bedevilment" or put on a light show. Instead, he tended to talk other people with magical abilities or super-powers into doing his dirty work for him (like Swamp Thing).

The semantics of sound [Eye] [via Thought Balloons]
"That era also gave us the sound of semen boiling in a spoon, courtesy of S. Clay Wilson (SSSSSS. POIP. BURBLE)."

Those who decried comic strips were on the wrong side of history [National Post] [via WFC News]
From the 01949 Nation editorial that "A generation of Americans has been driven several degrees toward illiteracy by the 'comic' book" and Wertham's black cloud, to Umberto Eco's praise for Superman as "a perfect example of civic consciousness," a figure of "judicious and measured virtue."

St. Valentine's Day is Link Love Day

It's that fun time of year again, when Neilalien breaks his ban on looking at stat reports, reads the tea leaves and chicken entrails, offends blog taboos of talking about traffic, makes it all sound like we talk about ourselves instead of comic books in a petty navel-gazing cliquey attention contest, and runs a February-to-February report to see who has sent the most linky-hits to this humble website- and try to send some eyeballs in return. So let's pour out the Valentine's paper bag that's been taped to his school desk and see who Choo-Choo-Chose him.

Top 15 Referrers to Neilalien Over The Past Year (February 02004-02005):

Comic Weblog Updates makes a strong debut, right to #2, and wow blowing past Yahoo searches. Many thanks to Simply Comics for the handy app. Blo.gs also makes a strong showing- Neilalien was only pinging that service to get on Comics Weblog Updates, but that site itself has sent tons of traffic too.

Journalista, ADDTF and Grotesque Anatomy retired in February, August and September respectively, but they still medal, which is a testament to their popularity (and their enduring blogrolls). And it makes a case for retiring when you're on top, leave 'em wantin' more, the good die young- a lesson Neilalien unfortunately never learned...

There's always new blogs that pop on the list, but a list that's 20% dead blogs is a new and notable thing. It ain't cool, either.

Top searches: Variations of 'dr. strange', 'neilalien'; 'book of names' oddly enough, Neilalien was lucky to name this page that, but (a) surely that's not what people were searching for, and (b) that page is due some attention. And you guessed it: 'pam anderson' searches still bring in waves of eyeballs. Thank you Stan for Stripperella news!

Thought Balloons cranks up to #4, as it was clearly the post-Journalista daily-fix news mantle-holder, and takes the top weblog (non-searchengine/webapp/corporate) prize.

"Consistently high traffic from old friends (they somehow never lost interest)" awards: LinkMachineGo has appeared on all four annual lists, Franklin's Findings and Pop Culture Gadabout have appeared on three.

Neilalien sends out his honored thanks to everyone who sees enough value on this site enough to read and link. And he's blessed, because in that bunch above are some of his favorite websites and people, and a pretty sweet 'related links' list to boot. Hopefully Neilalien would end up on your top 15 referrer lists too, but alas it would seem, as with most things in this life, that he receives more than gives.

Real-world people want escapism in their escapism: if it's the darling of watch-movies-all-day critics, it's likely a 'realistic' yawner [Filing Cabinet of the Damned]

I believe that a good comic is like good punk rock: fast, loud, and obnoxious. I already live in a world of talking heads and conflicted loyalties, of complex characters and disappointments. I don't need to read comics to get more of it... For me, less Vertigo, more Jack Kirby.

We should hope that comics ain't art, ain't for adults [The Less Said The Better; read the comments too]
"35 years of wishing and whining has only yielded arty curiosities for art school dropouts and superhero universes too complex for a kid to roll up and fit in his back pocket anymore." It's time we stopped deluding and taking ourselves so seriously. So what if comics might be "a filthy, shameful garage habit of youth" and morons who never grew up? Comparing art comix to Iron Man won't qualify it as art.

Quesada and Bendis' contempt for fans: How dare people who aren't part of Marvel's controlled hypemachine talk about comic books on the innernut- like rumorist Lying In The Gutters' Rich Johnston, 10,000 vocal-minority message boarders, and blogs- we proudly don't read 'em! [Newsarama]
Progressive Ruin: "God forbid people have a way to express their opinions on comics." Hey, people don't even have editor-controlled letters pages anymore.

New Marvel series Spellbinders follows six young witches learning about their powers and facing typical teen problems [Pulse]
No, Neilalien has zero interest. He's just wondering if this is a Witchesowl ball.

100 Things Alan David Doane Loves About Comics [Comic Book Galaxy; 2 MB image download] [Annotations]
Neilalien is honored to be on the list. If you love comics too, you could do a lot worse than try to explore some of the other 99 things. (PS- People seem to dig the new alien head; that's two image snags since the new design went up.)

Neilalien website "has been active for an estimated 160 'internet' years" [Comic Book Breaking News]
Ha! Funny item on a funny new website parodying the comics industry. Neilalien's thankful for the attention. Now back to napping.

Lesson of Clinton Fund-Raiser: Double-Check That Donor List [New York Times]
Big update on Pater Paul. It sure appears like he's serving up the Clintons in a gambit to get immunity re: his shady dealings at Stan Lee Media.

Joe Quesada interviews Tom Brevoort [Newsarama]
"All of the most interesting stuff was happening on the fringe, in titles like Warlock or Dr. Strange--and that stuff was being written way over my six-year-old head."

Sleeper's Ed Brubaker exclusive to do Marvel books [Newsarama]
"In fact, because of this contract, I may actually be able to do more creator-owned work than I could otherwise." Just like the movie stars: the big-studio paycheck allows for the freedom to do personal indie projects.

JLA: Classified #4 by Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire starts 6-part "I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League" [PopCultureShock]
The follow-up to the fun Formerly Known As The Justice League. Looks like that rarest of Sasquatch- Neilalien picking up a DC Universe title- will be seen again.

Neilalien usually filters out the steady flood of PR in his daily emailbox (not that he wants to be unsubscribed- please, make him feel like a playa! :) and you never know when something *will* catch his eye), but Fred Van Lente wrote an email so tailored to Neilalien's interests and ego that it made him laugh. Plus, it's darn-tootin' good news, too:

The Xeric-Grant-funded and Neilalien "Best of MoCCA"-winning ACTION PHILOSOPHERS #1 solicits this month in Diamond (Diamond Order Code: FEB05 2827) reprinting the mini in honest-to-God funny book format. Ryan and I go bi-monthly with all-new material following that. The next issue is the "ALL-SEX SPECIAL" featuring Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Aquinas and Ayn Rand. After that is "SELF-HELP FOR STUPID, UGLY LOSERS" with the brain droppings of Joseph Cambpell, Sigmund Freud and The Kabbalah. Interested readers can check out a FREE preview of #1 at www.actionphilosophers.com.

The Neilalien "Best of MoCCA"-winning THE SILENCERS is moving to Image Comics in July, relaunching with a new #1 and more super-mob action than you can possibly stand. More details to follow.

Also: Marvel clearly took notice of my winning two Neilalien "Best of MoCCA" awards, beacuse now I'm writing for them! Soliciting this month in Previews is AMAZING FANTASY #7 (FEB05 1871), starring the all-new SCORPION, in an espionage-meets-superheroics thriller that I am quite proud of. Check it out! It's good comics. Gorgeous pencils are by Leonard (SUPERGIRL, BLOODHOUND) Kent and the spectacular covers are the fine work of Mr. James Jean (www.jamesjean.com)... The new Scorpion is a female agent of SHIELD, Doc Strange's former batterymates in STRANGE TALES, so that's related to Neilalien, right? Huh? Huh? :)

The Cheaper Comics Manifesto [MillarWorld] [via Fanboy Rampage]
"The case for printing monthly comics on good ol' newsprint so they can be priced as close to 99¢ as possible." Comments at Rampage: cheap comics don't have enough profit margin for retailers to shelve. Better that we get more for $4.

Put the fun back into 'funnybooks' [Franklin's Pulp Culture]
Includes props for two people who are certainly making comics fun again for Neilalien: Kirkman (Invincible, Marvel Team-Up) and Slott (She-Hulk, Spider-Man/Human Torch).

The minute Neilalien talks up his fun with Kirkman's Marvel Team-Up, the next issue comes out with that uninteresting new Wolverine-Girl X-23 character. Sigh. Ah well, sometimes with team-up series you get Spider-Man/Dr. Strange, sometimes you get Galactus/Aunt May. This isn't direct market resistance to new characters, is it?- it's that X-23 isn't really a new character, right? Anyway, Marvel can't win. Wasn't just last week's Permanent Damage about how the Big Two don't give new characters time to develop and build audiences with appearances in anthologies and backup stories and books like a Team-Up?
Related: Chris Claremont "tasked to guest-star X-23" in Uncanny X-Men [Pulse]

Neilalien's bummed out today that his weblog doesn't have Categories.

It would be great to be able to click on a link that lists just all the Stan Lee/Marvel lawsuit stories, or just all of the Ditko or P2P downloading comics items, or a minicomics page. How can he make this happen?

Not that categories, taxonomies, folksonomies, semantics, tags (whatever happened to metatags?), etc. are exact sciences. And keeping multiple blogs for multiple topics, 500 RSS feeds, a Dr. Strange > Creators > Steve Ditko > The Question > The Purist Travesty of The Current Mini-Series category!- with an RSS feed for only that microtopic!- whittling the web's Niagara Falls down into five full-blast garden hoses that's just as difficult to drink from, etc. feel more like agitators of information overload than solutions.

And we must keep the weblog time, ego, self-consciousness and seriousness all in check. This website's not going to be god's gift to historical records with a permalink for every line.

But Blogger's never had categories (which dictates a lot)... Neilalien really only uses Blogger to take the edge off of doing all the blog by hand- he enjoys being in the trenches, and/but he's not about to start maintaining a PHP database or thousands of tiny text files. The tools (for blogging, categorizing, making RSS feeds, etc.) to do exactly what Neilalien wants to do don't exist yet, and he doesn't have the skills to hack what exists or build them himself, or the time to do even more things by hand than he already does. His natural blog-style doesn't help- each post-unit contains several links of many categories, categorizing each individual link would drown them in dates, category lists, tags, etc. (Dangerousmeta's or Ghost In The Machine's current style comes closest to the way he would go, small cat/tag lists after short linkbloggish items.)

Any plan that involves actually going back and assigning every past link a category would be a time nightmare- with the kicker being that with so much linkrot on the web, devoting time on an archive that's over 50% 404 errors is silly anyhoo.

Many of the blogging superstars don't use categories, so maybe it's not essential; nor do the legions on Blogspot, so he's not alone.

An excellent search function on one's site removes a chunk of the problem, as does keeping little searchable keywords in mind when blogging (for example, ensuring 'Stan Lee Media' is written in full in every post about it- which is another good reason to not use nondescriptions like "This is funny: click here" for links).

But maybe for those topics that especially interest Neilalien and his Google-wonkhead visitors, he might build some 'topic' or 'filter' pages by hand (the way some collect links to all of their reviews in their blogrolls) with 3-5 favored still-working links per subject...

"Can you imagine a newsman going out to do a story on Paul McCartney who didn't know of John Lennon?" [Mark Evanier]

"Still, by referring to his 60 years of work at Marvel as the reason he is justified in receiving compensation for Marvel's films, Lee does invite criticism... Lee's statement doesn't make it any easier for those of us (myself included) who have tried to defend his contributions to Marvel's early success..." [Franklin's Findings]

With Stan's power now must come greater responsibility to help his fellow creators [Comics Reporter]

It was a pretty lame piece, especially after the neat new Amazon monkey piece (and Christiane Amanpour saying that Up-la! with every physical exertion reminded Neilalien of that old video game Bagman). The first half of it was reprint material.

Stan is "the face of comics" for the world, and Neilalien wouldn't want to see him get skewered on national television over it- but it's such shoddy reporting (and maybe unhealthy clinging to a little-guy-vs.-big-company premise that 60 Minutes enjoys, and from which we have all benefitted, when they interview whistleblowers and such) that basic facts are omitted, and the casual observer would leave this piece thinking that Stan Lee single-handedly created the Marvel Universe, and that he's won vindication not on a contract paragraph in which he gave up creator rights but instead for getting creative-rightsly screwed out of decades of service.

Maybe Bob Simon has just fallen in love with the self-promotion master just as the rest of us have; at one point Lee's trying not to count his chickens before they've hatched, and Simon's like, 'DUDE! What are you gonna to do with your millions of dollars?'

(The news media just doesn't seem to do any investigative fact-reporting anymore. And you'd think with the way the media seems to shill 'we tell both sides, you decide' (even if one side is lying! no facts are checked) and 'he said, she saids' and 'if it bleeds it leads' and destroying people, that they'd want to do Lee vs. Kirby (or is that too obscure for the mainstream audience?) instead of Lee vs. Marvel puff pieces (Does Viacom enjoy reporting on other entertainment companies' woes? Nah!)).

And although we don't know if Stan mentioning Kirby or Ditko got cut from the piece (it was speculated at the time of the first piece that Ditko "hurts himself" and invites getting ignored by not playing with the press), Stan doesn't help his side with the quotes that do make it in (Marvel being a good company to its creators (what peyote was he smoking?), he gave Marvel "its everything").

There would be no Marvel Universe without Lee, there would be no Marvel movie money for anyone to get screwed out of without Lee. The way he sold the books, the reader-community realities and illusions he built, his creative, yes, creative, input- look at Kirby's and Ditko's work without him- he was much more than a great "production manager". Root for Lee against Marvel, he deserves every penny however he gets it- and at the same time, root for Ditko against Lee and Marvel, too. The facts dictate that other people besides Lee are getting screwed, and screwed more, and Lee played (and plays now) a role in the screwage of others. It's so true that in comics, we eat our own. Lee's a comic book hero, a charming old coot- and he's probably kind of a jerk too- he's in the middle of the cake. Most people have good and bad, especially the great ones it seems- it's not exactly a new concept nor one that tears the brain apart in cognitive dissonance, y'know? Maybe even Bob Simon's got some good. :)

Classiness, humility, modesty, magnamity, generosity, graciousness, gratitude, 'spread credit, accept blame'- all these things blunt the dark sides and make people great and great leaders- Lee doesn't have to fall on his sword, but we just don't seem to get these qualities enough from Lee to satisfy the smell tests.

Who Deserves the Credit (and Cash) for Dreaming Up Those Superheroes? [New York Times (reg req'd, try BugMeNot)] [via Thought Balloons]
You know the drill: The recent Stan ruling has nothing to do with creator's rights, but we all wish Jack and Steve had the same deal anyway.

How the #*%$ did that 10% clause get in that contract? [Comics Reporter]
Stan Versus The Man [Ninth Art]
Marvel's contract with Lee: surprising generosity or massive cock-up?

Previews sucks; need Diamond to publish two separate catalogs, one for retailers and another for consumers [ICv2]

Wow, this Retailer Math is scary for any new creators or characters [ICv2]

PUBLISHER - 4 points. If the publisher is DC, Marvel, or Image, 4 points, otherwise, 0 points.
CHARACTER - 3 Points. An established character gets 3, others get 0.
ARTIST - 2 points. Hot artist, or established with following, otherwise give 0.
WRITER - 1 point. I sometimes award a bonus point to star writers like JMS, Kevin Smith, Bendis, Johns, or celebrity writers.
It's a 10 point scale, and you should be able to gauge the initial success and percentage probability the book will sell through if you apply the formula properly. For example, a title earning 7 points has a 70% probability of sell-thru, and will be 70% likely to end up in the Top 100 for the month.

The revolving door o' death in superhero comics ain't so bad, if you stay within specific runs/stories [Gutterninja]
Ever-Ending Battle is an independent research study focused on the unique relationship between the superhero comic book genre and issues of mortality [via Fanboy Rampage]

Chris Claremont on the role of the internet in the comic book industry: anonymous vocal-minority mudthrowers with no effect on sales and too late to affect stories [Pulse]
You knew it was going to be bad at "The Interneteratti..."

The DC comics were always a lot more true blue. Very enjoyable, but they were big, brave uncles and aunties who probably insisted on a high standard of you know mental and physical hygiene. Whereas the Stan Lee stuff, the Marvel comics, he went from one dimensional characters whose only characteristic was they dressed up in costumes and did good. Whereas Stan Lee had this huge break through of two-dimensional characters. So, they dress up in costumes and do good, but they've got a bad heart. Or a bad leg. I actually did think for a long while that having a bad leg was an actual character trait... I realized the limitations of the super hero genre from an early age... I always had a vague idea that it would be nice at some point in the future to actually make my living out of doing something that I enjoyed rather than something I despised which was like everything other than comics.

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